Queensland has recorded just one new locally-acquired case of COVID-19 in the community as confidence grows that the state is eliminating the spread of the virus.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the case was identified as a close contact of an Alpha variant case in the Portuguese club cluster after more than 22,218 tests state-wide.
She says if people keep wearing face masks, social-distancing, getting tested and checking-in using QR codes the outbreaks will be brought under control.
“Great news today, thank you Queensland for the wonderful work that you’re doing and, as I said, if we’re all doing the right thing we will get through this together,” the premier said.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young said the new case is a close contact of a 29-year-old man from Sinnamon Park who travelled to the Noosa area last week.
The Kangaroo Point woman is asymptomatic and is a student nurse at Griffith University but has not been on campus.
Dr Young said she hasn’t worked at a shift and only briefly visited her clinical placement venue at Logan Hospital once since June 15.
“I’m not particularly concerned but we will go and double check, if she develops any symptoms going forward that will help us determine the actual infectious period,” she said.
“So I apologise, it’s a very complicated story, I’m just trying to point out that this is one community acquired case, and I believe it is low risk but we are as always, of course taking it very, very seriously, and looking at all potential exposure sites.”
The chief health officer said 6664 people had been identified as being contacts of active virus cases with 5177 people in home isolation and 3000 in hotel quarantine.
“So we’ve got a lot of people doing a lot of hard work in terms of all of those contacts, and thank you to all of the people who are adhering to those requirements to be in home quarantine and to continue to get tested when they’re asked to,” Dr Young said.
Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said a 32-year-old Sydney woman had been caught after escaping from hotel quarantine in Cairns .
He said the woman was found at a Cairns property and is facing criminal charges after scaling balconies and kicking in a door to escape the hotel.
Meanwhile Health Minister Yvette D’Ath confirmed that Queensland would be getting an additional 200,000 vaccines in July, or 64,350 Pfizer vaccines per week, which is a rise of 10,000 per week from June.
She said that would allow state clinics and GPs to start clearing a backlog of 230,000 people waiting to get vaccinated and 140,000 people who have registered.
“Yes, people can start looking at where there is a GP to book for Pfizer or an AstraZeneca vaccine throughout July, or they can continue to look at booking in with a state-run clinic into the future, and we encourage people to do that, and we will contact everyone who has already registered to let them know when bookings are available,” she said.
Queensland recorded five COVID-19 cases in hotel quarantine on Tuesday.
AAP
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